The concluding book of the enlarged edition of his famous work contains a chapter entitled “Reflections upon the Good and the Evil which the Discovery of America has done to Europe.”[408] A question of similar import, “Has the Discovery of America been hurtful or useful to the Human Race?” he presented as the subject for a prize of twelve hundred livres, to be awarded by the Academy of Lyons. Such a question reveals a strange confusion, inconsistent with all our prophetic voices, but to be pardoned at a time when the course of civilization was so little understood, and Buffon had announced, as the conclusion of science, that the animal creation degenerated on the American Continent. In his admirable answer to the great naturalist, Jefferson repels with spirit the allegation of the Abbé Raynal that “America has not yet produced one good poet, one able mathematician, one man of genius in a single art or science.”[409] But he does not seem aware that the author in his edition of 1780 had already beaten a retreat from his original position.[410] This is more noteworthy as the edition appeared before the criticism. It was after portraying the actual condition of the English Colonies in colors which aroused the protest of Jefferson that the French philosopher surrendered to a vision of the future. In reply to doubts, he invokes time, civilization, education, and breaks forth:-- “Perhaps then it will be seen that America is favorable to genius, to the creative arts of peace and of society. A new Olympus, an Arcadia, an Athens, a new Greece, on the Continent, or in the archipelago which surrounds it, will give birth, perhaps, to Homers, Theocrituses, and, above all, Anacreons. Perhaps another Newton will rise in the new Britain. It is from English America, no doubt, that the first ray of the sciences will shoot forth, if they are to appear at last under a sky so long clouded. By a singular contrast with the ancient world, where the arts passed from the South toward the North, in the new we shall see the North enlighten the South. Let the English clear the land, purify the air, change the climate, meliorate Nature; _a new universe will issue from their hands for the glory and happiness of humanity_.”[411] Then, speculating on the dissensions prevailing between the Colonies and the mother country, he announces separation, but without advantage to the European rivals of England:-- “Break the knot which binds the ancient Britain to the new; soon the Northern Colonies will have more strength alone than they possessed in their union with the mother country. That great continent, set free from all compact with Europe, will be unhampered in all its movements.… The colonies of our absolute monarchies, … following the example of the English colonies, will break the chain which binds them shamefully to Europe.”[412] The New World opens before the prophet:--